Day 6 - Vineyard tour

Ugh. Today was another early day and from a quick glance at my schedule, it looks like I'm going to have to get used to more and more days of waking up before the sun. First class was signals and circuits again, though this time the complicated math portion was already out of the way and we move on to a topic that I know a little bit more about: circuits (thank you Physics!). Our teacher Sarah is great, whenever we have a question or have absolutely no idea how to do a problem, she'll go through and work it out on the board for us. Luckily today's lesson was more of a review for most people, so we go through the lesson in a relatively quick time span and din't need to have another extra lesson. However, there was homework on this chapter. I'm getting a little worried about the amount of homework piling up, if this rate keeps up, I'll have a steady steam of homework that I don't know how I'll get through with all the socializing I'm doing.

After BMEN was our first history of medicine class. It was actually very interesting and I learned a lot of cool facts about the various deadly diseases that have swept throughout the world. Diseases like malaria, smallpox, the plague (bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic) and many others. Even though the lesson was just a basic overview of what we'll be expected to learn this semester, I'm very excited to learn more about these infectious diseases. After that class, we all decided to work on the introductory presentation about our program that we would show to everyone else in the AIB programs on Saturday. We took inspiration form Purdue's "This is Engineering" and took the basic form of the thrift shop song to create a masterpiece that incorporated both the BMEN and the Biomedical Sciences majors in equal measure. I'm actually really proud of it.

After that came lunch, followed by a quick stop back at AIB to pick up our stuff before leaving for our scheduled tour of the Mayschoss-Altenahr vineyard where they supposedly make some of the best red wines in the country. On the bus was another group from Penn State, but we didn't really get a chance to meet them before getting off of the bus. Once we did stop though, there was some intermingling of the groups. Our tour guide was an older man who had two sons that were wine growers, and his tour was really extraordinary. He took us through town to where the grapes would be grown. The whole community is settled between two huge mountains, so instead of having an expansive, flat growing ground, the grapes were mostly gown in terraces spanning all the way up the mountain. Our guide took us up one of the mountains and around to the other side, telling us about the different parasites that eat the grapes and the methods used to deter them (tourists were the biggest one) and about what the different soils do for the taste of the wine once it's been made.

 Yes, those are all grape vines

 As are all those in the background

 There were quite a few crosses up on high peaks

 Just look at that sunset

As we came over the side of the mountain, the sun was just beginning to set, basking the entire back half of the valley in a golden glow. It was probably one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever seen. Once the sun had mostly set and the tour of the fields was done, our guide took us into the cellar of the vineyard and explained what all the different barrels did to the wine and the process that the grapes go through once they're picked. He showed us how sparkling wine was made (note to everyone: old sparkling German wines are not a good investment!! They apparently taste really bad). He even showed us a little museum of the history of wine making in his community and the types of wine that can be made from white and red grapes and why each wine had it's grapes treated a certain way. It was all really cool being in that cellar with so many aging wines.

 There were about 20 more sections of these

The sparkling wines had to be fermented upside down

Then came the best part: the wine tasting portion. There were three different wines that we were allowed to taste, a white, a rose, and a red. Before we were able to taste our first wine, our guide taught us the proper way that a tasting should go. First you look at the color, then swirl the wine in the glass to get some on the side so you can smell it. Finally you slurp the wine (not sip, slurp) so that the wine can be aerated and the flavor can be fully released to your mouth. Also, don't swallow right away but allow the taste to permeate your mouth so that you get all the flavor before swallowing the wine. It was quite an experience. By this point, it was about 5:30 and we were all starved for food. Luckily they had bread and soup available for us to eat while we tasted the wine. The first and second wines were rather good and many people enjoyed the sweetness of the wine that didn't overpower them with so much sugary flavor. Unfortunately, the red wine was a very dry wine and most people didn't like it, some watering it down with the sparkling water that was provided for us while others quickly downed it before chasing it down with the water. Despite that, the trip was a lot of fun and I had a great time talking with both the people from Penn and from A&M.

The ride back I spent mostly writing the beginning portion of this blog, as I didn't know if I would be going out after getting back to Bonn. In the end, I think I fell asleep so I decided not to go out and go back to my host home.  I think I made the right decision. Now I can prepare for the presentation tomorrow and maybe get some of my homework done.

Tchuss!
Erin Z